The Zimbabwean police detained the country's most respected human rights activist yesterday as a visiting six-nation Commonwealth delegation began assessing implementation of last month's accord reached in Abuja, Nigeria, on restoring the rule of law.

The President’s official announcement that his government had “dumped” ESAP dominated Zimpapers and ZBC during the week, but none of them explained that government had effectively abandoned the policy years ago.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, has warned that state-sponsored killings in Zimbabwe are on the rise.

For Zimbabwe, the immediate effect of these events is that the Zimbabwe Democracy Bill is likely to fall off the American agenda in the near future, in the same way that the world has disappeared from global news coverage. The restrained responses of the Government of Zimbabwe to the events in the US, indicate the Mugabe regime’s understanding of the space that has opened up to them.

President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet has legislated minimum wages for Zimbabwean industry without reaching agreement with labour and business, the 'Financial Gazette' reported on Thursday.